


Die Wende

by drcalvin



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Berlin Wall, Historical, Incest, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-04
Updated: 2010-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-07 00:52:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drcalvin/pseuds/drcalvin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The reunification of East Germany and West Germany leaves Germany. Whole, united, alone...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Die Wende

Strange how he's spent so many years missing him. Strange, because when East is around he is easily one of the most obnoxious people West knows.   
Perhaps it is that very annoying presence he is missing? East is just supposed to be here; familiar like an old war injury that hurts when it is about to rain. Strangely comforting like a creaky staircase. Sorely missed, when he's hidden on the far side of the Iron Curtain.

Oh, he's seen him a few times over the years. Through plots and plans and sheer idiotic acts of impulsive rebellion they've manage to meet occasionally.   
He fondly remembers when East disguised himself as a bodyguard for an East German delegation. When the politicians realized he was gone, they first thought it was just a guard that had defected. By the time everyone realized exactly who it had been that sneaked away or why West Germany was nowhere to be found, it was too late.

They'd come back like good little nations, the very next day in fact. Although East's suggestion that they should run away had been a little tempting.

If they hadn't both been roaring drunk, West Germany would have been ashamed of how they behaved that day. East's trousers were stuffed full of bananas and coffee. As for West, he managed to puke on a member of the secret police without even planning it. Try as he might, he can't really feel sorry for even now that he has sobered up.   
Their respective bosses were for once in perfect agreement. They both brought their countries home and then filed the entire event under We Won't Talk About This Again, Ever.

But those meetings had been clandestine, too short for both their tastes. Now though, now the wall was falling. West waited with the other eager family members. He too was standing in the crowd gathered around one of the sanctioned and strictly guarded exits from East Berlin.

There, was that a spot of white? No, not him. An old man who tearfully reunited with a daughter or granddaughter after many years.

There! Yes, there could be no one else who'd shove people away quite that gleefully, nobody else whose hoarse laughter would ring so loud over the din of the crowd.

"West! West!" he called and, yes, it's him.

"East! Brother...." Finally, they're hugging and laughing like everyone around them. "I missed you, idiot," he whispers before he can think better of it.

"Missed you too, you stuck-up prig."

West takes a step back, holding his brother in a steady grip at the shoulders while he looks him over. His heart clenches when he sees what has become of East during these last tumultuous months. They're a study in contrasts now, more than ever before.

While West is strong and hale, a young man with a future, East looks paler than ever. Thin and sharp as a razor wire. Every citizen he loses, another gram of him is shaved off by the unyielding knife of history. Once Hungary opened her borders, he's been looking more and more like a plague survivor for every day.

This does nothing to diminish his smile, though. His eyes are still vibrant, gleaming with hope and revolutionary spirit. So what if West's hands look as if they could break him apart? They're together again. And East has felt the joy of each escapee, as if it was he himself who passed through the Iron Curtain into freedom.

Soon they have found a pub and East is the first to call for a toast. "To the future, brother!"

"The future!" the people around them echoe.

West is so happy that he thinks his heart is about to burst and he drinks and laughs with the best of them. Only, as the day wears on, he realizes that his emotions are nothing compared to the near frenzied ecstasy of East.

For his brother is yelling louder than all others, drinks more than any sane man ought to be able to stomach. He drags West around to all the checkpoints, they pause only to admire the graffiti. They cheer loudly on the people hacking away at the wall but only East's laughter carries on the wind, beyond the city borders. Perhaps they will hear him, even in Austria and France today?

They spend the day celebrating with their peoples, together. They thank all the other nations that drop by to congratulate, together, united.

When late that night even East's unending will to party wears down, they stumble homewards through the streets of Berlin. Unsteady as their feet may be, they are both pulled by unwavering instinct toward the outskirts of the city. The house they are seeking belongs to Germany, but it has stood empty for many years. Bomb-damage still remains, not repaired, and most windows are boarded up and hidden.

Still, it is here they seek sanctuary.

East filled his apartment with as much memorabilia as he could possibly salvage from his former life, but the grey concrete never felt like home.

Neither did West ever feel fully comfortable in the fancy but sterile apartment his government provided him with. No, worn-down as this the place may be, that house and this city has always remained his true home.

Alone in the darkness, their shared happiness takes a new form. Soon they're kissing and stroking, in their sanctuary from a frantic world.

If East is almost glowing in the murky house, none of them remark upon it when they fall down on the bed. They're almost choked by the huge cloud of dust that rises, but they can laugh it off right now. Today, everything can be beautiful.

Indeed, the dust shines too, once West has torn down a few of the planks hiding a window. In the dim glow of a street lamp they join together in the most primal way possible.

Much later, when they are both sated and tired, they share a tired chuckle as East remarks that he'd like to know what their bosses would do, if they found out about this kind of reunification.

There's happiness in the air. Tomorrow will be full of problems and weighty political matters, but right now they can simply share the emotions that fill the German nation.

"I missed you so much," West admits and his arms around East's bony shoulders tighten unconsciously.

"You won't have to any longer," his brother whispers in a voice is so thin and husky that West can only kiss him in reply.

"It's ok. I'm happy," East says. Yes, now that he knows to listen for it West can hear the deep satisfaction in his tired voice.

He feels good too, content. Today the world turned without blood being spilt. Today, everything turned towards a new, brighter future and two brothers were allowed to experience it all, together.

"What did you say?" he asks as East murmurs something too softly for him to catch.

"Never mind."

"But you-"

East snaps him on the nose. "You gotta sleep now! There's loads of work tomorrow."

So West listens to his big brother. He kisses East goodnight, gathers him painfully close with a weary sigh. Then he allows the exhaustion of the last frantic days to catch up with him and soon West is deeply asleep.

His brother remains awake for a while, studying the younger nations unguarded face in the city light. But he too feels the drag of that deepest sleep, and so, reluctantly kisses his brothers cheek good night. Red eyes slide close, and snuggled in his brother's arms, East goes to sleep.

When morning comes, there will be a frantic official dispatch knocking on the door of a house old men barely managed to remember the address for. The man will call for his nation to please come out if he's hiding in that ruin, because there is really rather lot to do. And they're practically drowning in paperwork!

And when he knocks and calls, the eyes that open, the body that rises to answer will belong to Germany and Germany alone.

If he looks back to the rumpled bed and remembers the other who went to sleep next to him, he will bury that memory and hide it deep inside. He needs to concentrate on his duties and he has always been dutiful to a fault.

If, at certain moments from this time onward, Germany's eyes will flash red and his smile turns wild and dangerous, well, that is too something to bury as well.   
Unless one day that red fire breaks free and another seed for a nation is born... Perhaps without knowledge of the past, but wild and reckless as if he was told by God that his duty was unrest, his lifework war.

But. Until that day, there is only Germany.

Germany with memories of a brother, troublesome and loud, whose heart beat like machine-gun fire, with eyes the colour of blood. The memories he will always carry, hidden in the depths of his heart.

/The end

**Author's Note:**

> Die Wende - lit. "the turning point", the German term referring to the social changes that ended the GRD and included the reunification.  
> [Wikipedia knows more](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_wende)


End file.
